


2012

by TheGreatAhtnamas



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Brainwashing, Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Hyrule - Freeform, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Real World Cross-Over, Torture, Violence, abductrion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 07:59:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13336845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreatAhtnamas/pseuds/TheGreatAhtnamas





	2012

Where do I begin? I suppose the beginning makes the most sense… though that’ll make this a long story. This tale of woe begins in a grand country, the United States of America…. Quite grand, huh? Maybe I should be more specific. My residence was in New Hampshire at the time this all began: that was the summer of 2012. I was nineteen years old… my name is Samantha Jackson. I was a nobody with no direction. I knew I should go to college, so I did… but I didn’t know what to do with myself while I was there. I wasn’t a particularly great student, and when I was it was because I was terrified of losing my financial aid.

Funny, though, how the biggest motivator can be a little fear.

Scratch that: I really don’t find it funny at all.

Obama's first term as president was nearing its end, and another bout of elections was due. The country was a mess economically, politically, socially… the list of perfections is shorter. I think a small part of me wished we wouldn’t focus on an election when we should be focusing on fixing the problems we face. I can’t really remember anymore, though. It’s been so long since then.

The day was Thursday the twenty-first of June and almost one entire year since my graduation of high school. A good friend of mine named Kevin—a Guatemalan boy forced by his parents to move here and forced by his own will to return home some time after—returned to the US for a familial visit. He called me early that morning and we made quick arrangements to meet that very night. We went out for a lovely dinner where we caught up on lost times and new memories. When we finished, we meandered down Main Street. The sights to see had dwindled with the sunlight, besides that of your local bars, so we decided to sit on one of the stone benches to keep cool.

I turned to him. He was watching the moon above the city, his eyes transfixed. “When do you to leave for home?”

He looked over to me, eyes full of confusion. “I hope that’s not what you want…? For me to leave again?”

I was surprised at the negative turn. “No, no! Of course not! It was just, between college and all, I think I’ve been socially deprived…. I would like to make a habit of this.”

It was his turn to be surprised. “College? You never said anything about that. Where do you go to college?”

I simply raised a hand and pointed diagonally down Main Street and said “Keene State.”

“So close to home?”

“I don't have to pay to stay on campus; it helps financially.”

He gave a little smile before looking back to the sky. The confusion didn’t disappear, though, and when I noticed his eyes were again transfixed, I had to ask: “What's up?” He pointed in the sky, and I quickly spotted a shadow just to the left of the moon. We watched it for a moment before a rumbling sound came from his pant pocket. He quickly pulled out a cell phone and inspected the caller ID. He sighed, turned to me and asked, “¿Te gustaría ir adentro?”

I gave him a look, reminding him that if he was going to speak Spanish, he was going to have to do so a little slower.

He shut his eyes, shook his head in slight embarrassment, and said, “Los sientos, would you like to come inside?” He gestured toward a nearby coffee shop.

I quickly nodded. He took my hand in his, walked me to the door saying, “This will only take a moment,” and answered the call.

We sat down at one of the more inconspicuous tables in the corner. I continued to watch the shadow, which had by then shifted to hover in front of the moon. It looked like it might be moving… back and forth? Maybe expanding and contracting… it was hard to tell, they were so small. Wait, they? I looked again. Sure enough, there were two shadows then. Close together, then further apart—what was going on?!

“No.” The word was harsh, even shocking, despite Kevin’s otherwise calm voice. I momentarily forgot the shadows. “Mi negocio privado no es tuyo. ...Entiendo tu preocupación, y te agradezco que pienses en mí, pero basta. Te veré tarde esta noche. ...Estoy colgando ahora. ...Buenas noches.” He hung up, but it was hesitant and it sounded like someone might have still been speaking on the other end. He sighed and shook his head. When he looked up at me, concern in my eyes and my brow raised in inquiry, he put a hand up reassuringly. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

I scoffed a little. “I’ll try not to, but it seemed awfully important.”

He shook his head. “Nah, it was just parents being parents.”

I released an obligatory laugh, but I couldn’t say I felt comfortable with the idea. I was generally on very good terms with my parents, separated though they were. I lived with my dad, and we were very close: I told him everything. I was less close to my mom, but I’d always speak to her given the opportunity. The concept of telling my parents off seemed foreign, even unreasonable to me.

He looked back out the window. “What do you suppose it is?” he asked.

I looked back as well. It was one, though larger now, covering at least half the moon. I was going to tell him I didn’t know, but as I opened my mouth to do so, a bright mauve light shone forth from the shadow. I shut my eyes and put my arms up to shield myself from it, and I heard Kevin hiss in discomfort… or maybe that wasn’t him. I thought it was, but it grew to something more thorough than a sound uttered by accident. It sounded like language, it sounded like words, and it sounded like it was getting louder, clearer… and yet I could understand none of it. I felt lightheaded, like I was swimming in vertigo despite sitting motionless. I tried to open my eyes, but everything was blurry and faded through eyelashes. What was that noise? It didn’t sound like a coffee shop, it sounded like a noise of bubbling, slithering, vitality. It made me think of a cathedral echoing in whispered prayer. I couldn’t feel myself anymore, and the words overwhelmed me until I fell into Kevin’s arms, only barely ready for my weight.

“Are you okay?” Kevin asked.

“Something’s wrong…” I muttered.

I tried to examine my surroundings. It appeared others were as affected by the strange light, too… or perhaps it was the sound? But the others weren’t moving. They weren’t looking around or speaking at all, they were completely silent and still. My eyelids shut of their own accord, but I noticed one more thing before they did: Kevin wasn’t affected at all. I think there were others unaffected too, but I couldn’t remember… I couldn’t even remember where I was….

I think Kevin tried to say something, but I don’t remember. I remembered very little once my eyes closed; there was movement, like I was carried so quickly safety was forfeit. There was noise, still so much noise. Eventually, though, it all stopped.

It didn’t appear much time passed before I came to. It was dark, darker than it had been at the coffee shop. I was on my side, lying on broken sticks, chipped rocks and damp soil. I shifted with the desire of finding a more comfortable position to rest in when I realized I was not in the comforts of my own bed. My arms pulled and fought to help me up, but they wouldn’t move. I remembered the helpless feeling I had in the coffee shop with Kevin, and I opened my eyes to look for him. I was stunned to see where I was: a large field I had been to once or twice when hiking nearby to home. I went to push myself up again, but something was holding me down. I pulled and shifted my arms, both secured behind my back. Chains rattled. I looked down to my ankles, which were also protesting in movement: thick, archaic manicals clasped around them—and I could only assume wrists as well.

Footsteps approached me from behind. I struggled to turn to no avail. A hushed snarl in my ear followed by hot breath on my neck. I shivered and tried to pull myself away with a muffled wince. Whatever it was roared and stalked away. Again, I attempted to turn with no success. After a lengthy struggle I was able to sit up, though by that time the thing behind me was already gone.

Heavy steps came swiftly, but the figure blended into the dark night. By the time I located him, he was crouching a couple inches from my exhausted form. My surprise pushed me to lean away. A gasp escaped me, but when his massive, strong hand grabbed and lifted my chin the gasp was lost in an unsophisticated yelp. “Welcome to the world of the living. You are the first to return.” His voice was menacing, low, and incredibly controlled. The power I heard commanded there alone nearly froze me in place. It did not help that his features were cinematically concealed in shadow. He held me still, as though expecting something from me. I yanked my head back from his hand, but my attempts to free myself were met with a tighter grip.

“Wh-who are you?” I stammered when it was clear he wouldn’t let go. “What do you want?”

“Perhaps if you ask me something a little more imaginative I'll answer it.” His response was venomous; was he upset I asked? Well, then what _did_ he want from me?

Before I could voice my confusion, an old, wise voice interrupted: “My Lord, this is the child that fought off the spell for a time…”

The man before me, apparently a ruler of some kind, removed his gaze from me.

“Her friend gave quite a struggle for her freedom, too,” the voice continued. “We had to force him into submission.”

The man's hand dropped from my chin, and I took that moment to seize what little courage I had. “What did you do to him?” My volume awoke no one, but it was quite formidable.

He narrowed his eyes at me. I visibly shrank away from him. “I don’t have the time for this. Koume, Kotake, if you would be so kind.” He stood in a kind of swaying motion that blew wind into his cape and sent it billowing around him. He stepped away, though in the dark I couldn’t tell how far off he was. In my vision were two old women instead, each nearly a mirror of the other. Black robes of cotton decorated with geometric designs at the sleeves, light hair against their eerie, decrepit features, with brooms in hand. They seemed like the stereotypical old witch, but the large jewel on their foreheads, one a touch cooler in tone than the other, was the only suggestion otherwise.

They didn't need to bend down after approaching me: they stood four feet tall at the absolute highest, and that might have been including the height of their hair. “Your friend is fine, dearie. He is sleeping soundly in his bed at home.” One said, while the other laughed. “You should concern yourself no further about him.”

The thought was puzzling. He was in as much of a panic as I was, if not more since he was more collected than I was, so why would he be just sleeping at home? It seemed to me as though their words were thick with a second meaning, but I couldn’t figure it out. Eventually I decided, as long as he was safe, his actions thereafter didn’t much matter now.

“My Lord,” one turned away from me and said, “the others should awaken within the hour.” Others? What did they mean by—oh…!

They were lined up next to me and across from me. I couldn’t believe I didn’t see them before, but it looked like hundreds of other girls were shackled and unconscious in the field around me. The trio didn’t notice my shock.

“Before we go, might we leave you with one piece of advice?” the other continued.

“Advice from you is gratefully accepted. What be it?” he inquired.

“This girl is not like the others. Though they may easily be held to your will…”

“...she will not. Not only is her mind a strong one, but it is also full of fog and cloud.” The two twins seemed to speak off each other.

“Fog is nothing and her strength can be no more than a sliver of mine. What could this pathetic child do to harm me?” The king argued, but it seemed a bit sarcastic. He allowed for their response, but their insinuation was definitely frustrating him.

“Within this fog, she sees with uncanny certainty. She can attack while her adversaries are blind to the assault.” Fog and cloud, what did they mean by that? And assault? When have I ever hurt anyone, especially with my brain?! “Be forewarned; if you still plan to control her as you do the rest, be prepared for a hard fight—perhaps even a war.”

No one—not even they themselves—knew how prophetic their words would be. I, as well as the king, thought they over judged; but their certainty caused an unwelcome hesitancy in the him. They departed side by side to a small tent set up in a corner of the clearing only visible to me because of a small firelight that exposed itself from the opening of the tent flap. That left me and the king to become, unfortunately, better acquainted.

“You may have swayed their old minds, but you have not swayed mine.” He hissed darkly.

I gulped to wet my dry throat. “I-I… I’m not exactly sure what they’re thinking, and I didn’t try to make them think it….” I tried to look him in the eye, but something made me unable. Maybe it was just his anger, maybe it was his proximity. It didn’t matter: it entertained him.

He hovered over me, silent for a moment. Even in the dark, though, I saw the malicious grin that curled his lips. “Then I suspect a little… _test_ wouldn’t be out of place….” His next movements were swift: he raised his open hand and grasped my forehead with a consuming, terrifying force. My eyes closed to protect themselves as my head tilted to meet his grasp submissively, despite there being little momentum to cause it. There was something else about this attack; I felt… invaded, like everything that I was was exposed and open for him to see. I tightened my eyelids when the discomfort persisted, but my body began to feel light again, like I was floating. I forced my eyes open.

I was no longer in the field I had been in: I was floating in a great expanse of air. I’m not sure I could call it a sky… but what else could it be? A cloudy, dark sky. It was so thick, I couldn’t see an inch in front of me, but here's the odd part: I felt like I knew the place—intimately. My thoughts began to slow, and that meant I couldn’t think enough to feel fear; some sort of instinct overtook me. I manipulated my body and the environment around me, and I moved forward. I can’t say how I knew I was moving at all, though; there was no wind resistance, change in temperature, or alteration of my surroundings. It didn’t matter, though: I just knew, and it gave me confidence.

I found this king hovering some ways away. I rounded him, looking at him up and down. I couldn’t see any details, he looked only like what I knew him for at the time: he was a shadow, huge and intimidating, cape billowing around him despite the lack of wind. Regardless of my proximity—I must have been only a couple feet from his form—he didn’t seem to notice me. I think his eyes may have been closed.What was he doing…?

Then, he moved. His form dropped down from our location and in retrospect I wondered if there was a world around us besides sky and cloud. Regardless of that answer, I followed him without delay: somehow, I knew it was important for me to stop him, though how I knew it, or why it was important, I did not know. I rushed after him, catching up to him and even surpassing him with a surprising speed. I raised my hands, one at a time, in preparation to throw something. I only barely noticed I held something—something cold and tapered—before it left my hand. It struck him square in the chest, knocking him back through the air. His eyes opened, furious and pained. He held the place on his chest where he had been struck, and then he was gone. The whole scene was gone.

I fell to the ground in a heap as his hand released my forehead. I felt groggy—as if I had just awakened from a restless sleep. Pushed myself upright again. Everything about whatever he just did felt wrong. My head pounded for a few seconds, and my sense of space was taking time to return. My vision was still blurry when something held my chin painfully and lifted my head upwards. The man’s proximity to me meant, despite the unabating blurriness in my eyes, I saw the details of his face. Heavy, deep wrinkles and lines turned his mien into a practiced scowl. Thick brows angled in displeasure so heavily they nearly covered his eyes… but no, no such luck. It was his eyes that made me cower, that made pull away from him. They glowed a golden color and were hard and dilated in fury, and they were fixed on me. “You’ve made a foolish decision. Do you understand what you’ve done?”

I tried to shake my head, and what few words I could speak were shaken into whimpers. I wanted to say I was sorry, I wanted to say I didn’t mean to, I wanted to say I would never do it again, but all I could manage was to barely shake my head left to right and produce a strange sound from my throat. He growled in dissatisfaction, reared back his arm and slapped me across the face. He let me fall to the ground, where I curled up protectively and turned my face from him into the ground. He turned to leave, but hesitated at his full height. He watched me a moment, then said,

“You have intrigued me.”

He left me, semiconscious and unable to respond. As he disappeared into the darkness, I tried to soothe my pounding head and stinging cheek. I lay motionless in panic for a long while, and by the time I regained some degree of calm I was no longer the only one awake. I wiped away tears I hadn’t known I’d shed, and listened carefully to the world around me—other whimpering women, the terrified scream of one or two when they woke, the frantic and ever growing rattling of chains. It was then, when I knew I was no longer alone in my despair, that I examined the experience I had been bestowed earlier that night.

Why did I act that way? Did I really think that stopping him was smart? Safe? I must have needed to protect something—protect something? protect what?! What could possibly have needed protecting in a fog-filled expanse that followed none of the rules of gravity?!

The more I thought on it, the more frustrated I was with the whole thing. Why did I have to wake up first? Why did the witches say anything?

Why was this happening?

* * *

_* A heavily revised version of a fanfiction of the same name published on fanfiction.net in 2009 *_


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